Vials of the injectable steroid product made by New England Compounding Center implicated in a fungal meningitis outbreak. / AP / File

Written by

Walter F. Roche Jr.

The Tennessean

In the first of what is expected to be a series of last-minute lawsuits stemming from the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak, a complaint has been filed in U.S. District Court in Nashville by a Murfreesboro man who contracted meningitis from a tainted steroid injection.

The 62-page complaint filed Wednesday comes as an October deadline is approaching. Under Tennessee law, there is a one-year time limit on health-care liability claims. Filings in a related suit in federal court in Boston show that dozens of additional suits are likely.

The existence of the outbreak was first disclosed by Tennessee and federal officials on Oct. 1, 2012.

The suit filed on behalf of Frederick and Loduska May charges that health-care providers were negligent, provided substandard care and violated product liability statutes in the care and treatment of Frederick May.

The couple had earlier filed a similar suit in circuit court in Nashville but that was dropped voluntarily several months ago.

The meningitis outbreak has killed 63 patients nationwide and sickened 749, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fifteen patients treated in Tennessee have died while 153 have been sickened.

Dozens of cases filed on behalf of the outbreak victims already have been merged in federal court in Boston and the May case is expected to be moved there eventually.

Frederick May, according to the suit, received three injections of methylprednisolone acetate at Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center, with the last coming on Sept. 10, 2012. While on vacation in early October, he was diagnosed with fungal meningitis and hospitalized in Florida, according to the complaint.

“As a direct and proximate result of the contaminated epidural steroid injections, Fred May contracted fungal meningitis, became very ill, and continues to suffer from the effects of fungal meningitis,” the complaint states.

In addition to the neurosurgical center, the suit names the Howell Allen Clinic, the individual owners of the New England Compounding Center and related companies and a testing company as defendants.

The company that produced the fungus-infested steroid, the New England Compounding Center, has filed for bankruptcy and the suit filed Wednesday states that a claim against NECC will be filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Massachusetts.

Lawyers for the neurosurgical center had denied the claims of negligence and product liability violations in the suit in circuit court before that action was abruptly dropped on the eve of a series of key depositions.

Attached as exhibits to the suit are billing records and emails indicating that the Nashville neurosurgical center began purchasing drugs from NECC, the defunct Framingham, Mass., drug compounder, when the regular supplier raised its prices.

Lawyers for the health facility have denied that the price of the drugs was a factor in switching to NECC.

A new suit also was filed earlier this week on behalf of Dennis O’Brien of Jamestown, another victim of the outbreak.

That complaint was filed in circuit court in Nashville and names the neurosurgical center and the Howell Allen Clinic as defendants. Like the May suit, it charges the defendants with negligence and violations of the state product liability law.